The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tonight, I am definitely not feeling the holiday spirit.  I guess that is the best time to shift my attitude. 

I will remember this manifesto.  Just reading it makes me smile. 

It comes from Shimelle’s “Journal Your Christmas.”  You should really sign up for the workshop (and it isn’t just for scrapbookers either).  The best thing about it is, once you sign up, you are in… permanently.  I can’t remember how many years ago I signed up, but it is always lots of fun.  I never stick with it for the entire season (December 1 through January 6?), but this year, I’m not going to feel guilty about it.  I will do what I can and that will be good enough.  I’ve always tried to do Ali’s December Daily as well, and end up feeling like a failure because I don’t do it daily.  But it is time to cast those doubts or feelings of failure aside and just have fun.  Any little bit I do will be better than nothing.  Don’t you think? 

Today was definitely not very Christmas-y other than waking up to everything being white from frost… and boy it was super cold. 

Kennedy and I went to the Little Gym this morning, and he amazed the instructor with his ‘forward rolls’ and strength.  He can just do them one after another.  He was also hanging from the uneven parallel bars today and then would just drop without a care in the world.  So much fun.  Once we got home, we got into our typical daily routine.  After Jessica got home, I started dinner and then Tim called and said there’d been an accident with the train.  The train in front of his had hit someone.  So totally depressing.  I had to drive to Kent to pick him up so he didn’t have to wait for hours while they did the investigation.  We didn’t end up getting home until about 7:30.  The only thing holiday related was the fact that UPS dropped off a couple of boxes at our house, and I finished up frosting the first trial batch of cookies. 

Yay!  Welcome, December.  Let’s get this party started!

December Daily – Day 1: Advent

I know that the idea behind Advent is a religious one, but since I am not particularly religious, I’m going to stick with the Advent that is secular in nature.  I found a lot of neat ideas for different advent calendars this year, but I think that we’re going to save those for next year, when little man is just a bit older.  This year, we’re going to do the December Daily/Journal Your Christmas/Countdown to Christmas thing only.  LOL. 
Now it is the first and we’re kicking off December with a spirit of happiness, peace, celebration and magic.  I love the idea of rekindling the magic of the season.  It has been a long year full of ups and downs, frustrations and huge emotional highs.  Now it is time to focus on the magic. 

Jessica bought me an advent calendar at the store.  I am using that for my first picture/page.  We got a big laugh out of it because the chocolate inside is so totally horrible.  It is the size in diameter of a nickel probably, but I couldn’t even eat it.  I think that Dove needs to get into the advent calendar business.  :)

We’ve started planning out our activities and things for December.  It is going to be a month chock full o’ things, and I have to get ready for England (leaving january 7th), so time is of the essence and I want to wring every juicy moment out of December. 

It is especially important this year because it is little man’s first Christmas.  It is so exciting.  I know he isn’t going to understand it all, but it is special anyway, and I want us to have some family traditions that he can grow up with.  Today, Jessica and I looked through one of my first scrapbooks.  It was crazy and made us laugh about the old school page layouts and stickers used.  How ugly things were!  Good ol’ Creative Memories and Mrs. Grosmann’s stickers.  LOL.  Even though it was ugly and embarrassing to see how stupid it looked to me now, it was still fun to reminisce and have those memories.  I want to be sure to capture those moving forward.  I’m not getting any younger.  LOL. 

It makes me sad that my grandma has no scrapbooks or photo albums or anything really from her life.  She has a few photos that she still has (I could choke her for giving away a bunch of them before), and I’ve laid claim to them before she tries to throw them out too.  I want our family to have some history and tradition and if that starts now, then so be it!  We have some minor traditions, but I want to have them be recorded and passed down even if they are no longer being practiced. 

But now... let the countdown begin!

We’ll see…

Manifesto

I am taking part (again) in Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas.  I am combining it with the December Daily thinking and trying to actually stick to it this year.  I also signed up for SJD’s Countdown to Christmas, so there should be more than enough inspiration to make me forge ahead.  I just wonder what my finished product will look like. LOL.  I’m posting the manifesto given by Shimelle, and hope to post more in the days/weeks ahead.  Jessica and I have been planning to do this and will support/encourage each other to hopefully see it through.  :D